Who is The Iconic Billie Jean King?

Billie Jean King is the first female athlete ever to earn more than $100,000 in a single season. The Californian athlete was also the first woman to receive the distinction of Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsperson of the Year.” She earned 39 Grand Slam career titles before retiring from playing tennis as a profession. Today, King continues to be an advocate, coach, and commentator for women’s sports in general.

Longbeach, California native Billie Jean Moffitt was born on November 22, 1943. She grew up in a conservative Methodist family. As a kid, King had access to public tennis courts near her home. She became famous when she won the women’s double’s title in her first attempt, in 1962. The athlete won a record of 20 Wimbledon titles between 1961 to 1979. She also received 13 US titles, 4 French titles, and 2 Australian titles.

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She also helped push equality among women of sports by fighting for equal prize money for men and women, which started in 1971. She expedited the popularity of this campaign in 1973 when she went on a “Battle of the Sexes” match with the 55-year-old tennis champion Bobby Riggs, who believes women’s game to be inferior. The battle garnered 50 million TV audiences, where King ultimately bought Riggs.

She would then become the first president of the Women’s Tennis Association in 1974. Her marriage with Lawrence King lasted from 1965 to 1987. She would later on openly admit about being in a same-sex relationship and would contribute significantly to the gay rights movement. Before her marriage, she was the lead for the first professional women’s tour, called the Virginia Slims, in 1970. Seventeen years later, she was elected as an International Tennis Hall of Famer. In the 1990s, she served as the captain for the Fed Cup team of the United States.

The Wisdom Segment

I
The first American football game was played between two college teams, Princeton and Rutgers, on November 6, 1869. The sport is called gridiron in Canada and the United States and is an offshoot of soccer and rugby that emerged during the 1800s and was professionalized in 1920.

II
It was only during the implementation of the Rugby Union Code that carrying the ball was allowed. During the later part of the 1800s, Walter Camp, the Father of American Football, introduced a new set of rules. Old Walt established the snap and introduced the concept of downs, lines of scrimmage, and 11-player teams.

III
Approximately two million footballs are made annually by The Wilson Sporting Goods Company, based in Ohio, which has been recognized as the NFLs official ball supplier since 1941. Did you know that about 600 cows are needed to make footballs for a whole season?

IV
Despite being a relatively new sport, American football has become wildly popular in the United States. In fact, the Super Bowl regularly ranks as the most-watched sports event in America. The 1958 NFL Championship game boosted gridiron's popularity to such an extent it was dubbed the Greatest Game Ever Played.

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Most athletes dream of getting into the NFL, not just for love of the game, but also to alleviate their family's poverty. The average salary of an NFL player is $2.1 million; however, due to poor financial management, most retired NFL athletes go bankrupt.

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Prime Time Deion Sanders played in the NFL for 14 seasons, and the MLB for nine seasons. No other athlete has ever made a home run in the MLB and scored a touchdown in the NFL in the same week, nor played in both the Super Bowl and the World Series.